Candidates should make mental health a priority

I watched the sheriff forums, eager to hear the candidates’ views on mental health, especially their ideas about how people with mental illness are treated by law enforcement officers in crisis situations. I was disappointed that many of the candidates do not understand how important this issue is for our community, from an economic as well as a social perspective.

A decade ago, serious mental illness consumed my family. Before that, it was not on my radar, but it should have been. Mental illness affects about one in five adults and serious mental illness affects about one in 24. Over half of mental illnesses begin by age 14.

Stigma prevents many from speaking out, which is sad, because that’s the only way we can improve mental health care and save our families and communities. Despair and living in crisis mode make it hard for families to advocate, and many individuals with serious mental illness are not able to speak up for themselves.

Here I am, a decade after my loved one was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I’m on the lookout for a sheriff who wants behavioral health professionals to respond to mental health crises, who wants to lower the percentage than the 35% of people with mental illness in our Broward jails, who approves of the Stepping Up Initiative (www.stepuptogether.org).

The American Psychiatric Association defines mental illness as a medical problem, just like heart disease or diabetes. I am waiting for leaders to say that people with mental illness of all colors should be treated without stigma. Like my Black and Brown friends, I don’t want to be afraid to call 911.

Gayle Giese, Administrator, Florida Mental Health Advocacy Coalition